Konrad and Alexandra (pdf) - Rolf Gross

It was an unreal night, the scare at the checkpoint, the uncertain future, and the strange,
age-old tales of the mountain people. Alexandra handled these rough people with an expert
mixture of hauteur and easy familiarity. One man asked her for her name, and when she gave
it as Alexandra Dadiani and told them that her mother was Tamara Chavchavadze a great
cheer went around the fire, and Otto and Konrad had to stand up and drink from a horn to
Alexandra’s health.
In the middle of the night Konrad woke. Alexandra was screaming obscenities. It was
pitch dark. She let go of another series of Russian curses. Otto sat up. "What is going on? You
scared me!"
"Tshi," whispered Alexandra, "Russian soldiers are trying to rob and rape a young girl
over there. Be very quiet."
Alexandra changed to Georgian, calling with a high-pitched, shrill voice on all Georgian
men to stand up and defend the honor of a Georgian woman against a "Russian swine." Within
minutes the men in the encampment were on their feet, shouting and cursing the Russian
intruders, who ran off into the night firing their guns into the air. The shots echoed from the
rocks. Thereafter, they slept in peace for the rest of the night.
They woke shivering. It took the sun a long time to penetrate the deep canyon.
Alexandra found the man with the cart and their companions, who had spent the night in a dirty
room in a house that someone had rented to them for a high price. They had hardly slept
because of rats and vermin and the shooting. Did she hear the shooting? they asked. They had
been told that a group of Chechen bandits had staged a sneak attack on the post.
Alexandra laughed, "Ho, Chechen bandits, a single woman defended the honor of
Georgia against a marauding group of Russians."
"Mother," asked Otto when they were back on the road, "where did you learn those
terrible Russian swear words?"
"From the soldiers whom I took care of at the hospital during the last years. They would
scream like this when they were in pain. Only they would curse the Emperor. Once in a while
these curses come in handy, as you see. Konrad was right, you don’t need a gun to scare off
these yokels."
The going was steep, they were still at the bottom of the Terek gorge. Sophia and
Rusudan had invented a game, and Sophia was fast learning Georgian from her new friend.
Rusudan’s parents stuck anxiously close to their possessions on the cart. Alexandra involved
the man from Kobi in a long conversation. Otto and Konrad brought up the rear.
As they emerged from the canyon and Mount Kazbeg came into view, Konrad's dark
mood lifted. The sun and the mountains swept his fears away. He told Otto of his first journey
across the pass with Leist, and his adventures with Alexandra in Tusheti.
Exhausted, they reached Kobi by evening. Alexandra’s devoting her attention on the
owner of the cart brought them an invitation to his house. In true Georgian hospitality he gave
them a room and heavy carpets to sleep on. He even invited them to supper.
Alexandra paid him and quietly added a liberal amount for the room. She knew how to
handle such matters in the villages. Later she doctored an abscess from which one of his
children was suffering with a sterilized kitchen knife. The good man was highly grateful. She
thoughtfully avoided asking him to take them to Mleti on that warm and comfortable evening.
Over a cup of hot tea and fried eggs in the morning he opened the negotiations on his
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